Bill Hillman's

Volume 485


Edgar Rice Burroughs'
The Beasts of Tarzan
Pulp, 1st Ed. & BLB Covers
Art by J. Allen St. John
Part I: Publishing History ~ Summary ~ Cast ~ Interiors from Chapters I-XI

Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Beasts of Tarzan Art by J. Allen St. John Part I Summary (from Ballantine Books blurb):  Now that he was the rich Lord Greystoke, Tarzan became the target of greedy and evil men. His son was kidnapped, his wife had been abducted, and Tarzan was stranded on a desert island where he seemed helpless. but with the help of Sheeta, the vicious panther, and the great ape Akut, Tarzan began his escape. Together with the giant Mugambi, they reached the mainland and took up the trail of the kidnappers. Tarzan sought his wife and his child—and he sought such vengeance as only a human beast of the jungle could devise. But the men Tarzan sought had fled deep into the  interior—and the trail was old and well-hidden.

I. Kidnapped

II. Marooned

III. Beasts At Bay

IV. Sheeta

V. Mugambi

VI. A Hideous Crew

VII. Betrayed

VIII. The Dance of Death

IX. Chivalry or Villainy

X. The Swede

XI. The Tambudza

From ALL-STORY CAVALIER WEEKLY, where it ran as a serial in May and June 1914, this ended up as the third Tarzan book. In many ways, THE BEASTS OF TARZAN is the least well known or mentioned of the early books. The first two, of  course, give the Apeman`s origin story and are most often discussed. THE SON OF TARZAN introduces Korak and Meriem and also has its internal chronological problems which have been the subject of much speculation by Philip Jose Farmer and the Wold Newton school.

 But THE BEASTS OF TARZAN is usually neglected, which is a shame as it`s lively and brisk, and way over the top. It does  introduce Mugambi and Akut, finishes off a couple of villains and naturally has its full share of thrills and spills. Still, it seems to have an air of an early filler in the saga and winds up with the characters pretty much as they were on the fist page, except for some wear and tear.

The story itself is an old-fashioned melodrama, with the hateful villain Nikolas Rokoff going to considerable expense and great effort to get a convoluted revenge on the Apeman. Once he escapes from the French prison where Tarzan had sent him, Rokoff  might be expected to hire a thug with a rifle to simply shoot his enemy down but noooo, that would not be twisted enough. Just as master criminals are compelled to explain their plans before leaving the hero in the death trap, so Rokoff arranges for little Jack Clayton to be kidnapped and raised by cannibals ("His little boy a savage maneater! It was too horrible to contemplate!") and for Jane to end up in a harem (you know, I have to wonder if maybe she didn`t have some kind of karma involving harems from an earlier life, she ends up on her way there so often).

As for Tarzan himself, does Rokoff leave him dead in a pit or dropped overboard with a rock tied to his neck? Or maybe abandoned deep in the Arctic to freeze to death? Nah. He maroons the perfectly healthy and furious Apeman on a large island within easy sailing distance of Africa! Duh.As you might expect, this is like stranding a pulp fan in a used book store. In no time, Tarzan has whipped up a stone knife, bow and arrows, grass rope, loincloth and treehouse, and is feasting on raw deer carcass while he figures out how to get on Rokoff`s trail.

What gives this book much of its appeal is that our hero assembles the All Beast Squadron to help him. Luckily there are a colony of the Great Apes on the island and he quickly kills their leader and sets up Akut, a mangani of unusual insight, as the leader of the pack under Tarzan`s command. (It`s interesting that, although these huge seven foot tall apes understand his lingo, they are actually a slightly different species than the mangani who raised the boy. I don`t think it`s been emphasized that there are two different species of mangani in the books.) With Akut as his lieutenant, Tarzan has a commando squad of a dozen surly apes following him. We will meet Akut again, disguised as Korak`s grandmother (!) in the next book.

Tarzan also befriends a panther. Pause for a second while I crank my suspension of disbelief up a few notches. Okay, this isn`t a cub he raises and trains like Jad-Bal-Ja the Golden Lion. This is a fullgrown wild panther that Tarzan frees from being pinned under a fallen tree. That`s all it takes for Sheeta to decide he likes this human and start trotting alongside and hunting with the Apeman. The only explanation I can see is that Tarzan must be giving off unique and very potent body language and signals that the cat responds to. In a short time, Sheeta not only is devouring the kill alongside his new master, he refrains from attacking the apes and humans when told not to. (What makes this more plausible is that Sheeta is always dangerous and unpredictable, barely under Tarzan`s control; he`s not a trained police dog or anything.)

Finally, Tarzan meets and befriends Mugambi, the only survivor of a party of natives who have the misfortune to encounter the panther and the apes. Mugambi will be a lifelong friend and companion to Tarzan`s family; in JEWELS OF OPAR we learn that he has spent time in London museums and art galleries, soaking up culture, and he sets out on a brave quest of his own to rescue Jane. Now, it`s true that the African natives in these books are often shown as craven, mean-natured and brutal, but then so are most of the white Europeans. There are only a few decent humans in Burroughs` Tarzan books and actually more of them are black than white. Like the Waziri (into which tribe he will be inducted), Mugambi is as noble and heroic as anyone could wish.("The fellow was a magnificent specimen of manhood... a black counterpart in physique to the splendid white man whom he faced.")

After that, we`re off on a typical Tarzan adventure as the various characters chase each other all over the jungle for chapter after chapter. Burroughs shows a lot of enthusiasm for details and asides to the reader, and the narrative only slackens a wee bit before building up to a strong finish (the bit about the mutineers could be skipped to give a more unified story). Tarzan takes a lot of punishment this time, including being dragged by a crocodile to its underwater lair, leaving his leg pretty chewed up. All the agita really infuriates the Apeman, and that famous scar on his forehead is pretty much blazing red continously.

At one point, Tarzan is throttling one of the bad guys while Jane pleads for his life. "Not again. Before have I permitted scoundrels to live, only to suffer and to have you suffer for my mercy," he replies as he twists the man`s neck like a bottle cap. You know if this were in a movie, he would stop at last second and mutter something about how the man`s not worth killing.

WEBJED: BILL HILLMAN
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